I’ll make my this my last post that pushes toward / beyond a sensible boundary! I am very conventional on the return of Jesus and am currently putting together some youtube videos and notes to go with them. Just to be clear: conventional in the sense that there does not seem to be any variation within the NT on that hope. Probably does not need to be said, but certainly am no ‘secret rapturist’, don’t fit into any of the ‘post / pre / a-millennialist’ schools, do not see that there is an antiChrist predicted. In short very little in the NT where we see with clarity about what is (wrongly) termed the ‘end times’. Anyway end of my conventionality – let’s stretch the elastic!
One thing I have to address first that does not have much to do with the Bible and any prediction is that without some intervention we are making such a mess of our planet (the ‘house’ God gave to us to live in) that there will be an ‘end’. Certainly the end of civilisation as has been. In the past few posts I have dropped in a little line about the bees – over the past 10 years or so I have been praying (maybe not as fervently as I could) about the bees. They are under threat and we need them to survive – for our sakes, for their sakes and for creation’s sake. If God did not destroy Nineveh because of the cattle it does not seem unreasonable to pray for the survival of the bees. If we are going to survive we have to see a MAJOR shift in our economic structures, with a bending of resources toward climate issues. It might take the reality of the crisis to bite even deeper for this to happen… if that does not happen then as there is no evidence biblically of the planet being destroyed we are certainly back by necessity to a conventional parousia. Jesus came first time round ‘at the fullness of times’, the point when there was no future, Jew and Gentile without hope, so maybe any return will be when there is no future. However, if we who have access to the name of Jesus swing a prayer or three in the direction of the bees, the climate, and the economic structures (OK maybe we need to go beyond three or four prayers on that one), maybe we will get much extended time. Let’s assume one way or another we get extended time.
Believers holding space for the gifts of humanity to come through; believers insisting that powers in the heavens that pollute, oppress and dehumanise back away; believers who no longer see anyone according to the flesh; believers who take responsibility for the future rather than make the ‘drag them out of the burning building’ as the central paradigm… If that were to happen maybe we could move into what might have been (maybe and might be!!!) Paul’s follow up to his ekklesia in every city phase. Then maybe with climate change, economic structural change, people before profit, witnessing to Jesus (way beyond evangelising) there could be a steady transformation, a steady increase of the presence of Jesus (the core sense behind the word parousia), more people finding faith, more of those who don’t find personal faith finding the vision for the future being something they wanted to buy into (as per the Asiarchs who did not find faith in Acts 19), then maybe the ‘return’ of Jesus could be a little different to what I think – after all if many of the ‘believers’ / Jews of Jesus’ time did not see how Jesus of Nazareth could be the expected Messiah it could well be that some of us might also miss it this time round.
One of the big push backs on the above is the ‘resurrection’ of those who have died, yet there was among some Jews the belief that the resurrection of the faithful would be over a period of time, not something that happened in one moment of time (a minority view).
Pushing the elastic to breaking… we see huge shifts in the body of Christ, that results in huge shifts to the economic system, that invests time and energy into the climate issue (the bees buzz a little louder), and the increase of the presence of Jesus becomes evident, humanity moves toward being new humanity, resurrection of those who were faithful begins… blah blah… but to be honest I think the elastic has snapped. Too far, Martin!
It is hard for me to read Scripture any other way than there will be a moment, the ‘trumpet’ will sound, the dead in Christ will come with him to the planet (the historical contextual meaning of ‘caught up to meet the Lord in the air’), those who are of Jesus experience mortality being clothed with immortality, that we enter the ‘eschaton’… but that might not be the end for it is never termed the ‘telos’ (goal).
See, when all is said and done, I am pretty conventional. However, there is something about continuing to work as if Jesus is not about to return (while holding on to the hope of his appearing) that is healthy.
Footnote: earlier this year I wrote about ‘new currency’, currency wars etc. The next few months might give some evidence of this – if so, new currency is not the key, but maybe it could stimulate us to pray for a new economics?
On my morning walk I reflected on how we have the capacity to create a new future right now. The total transformation demanded by the climate crisis is both a challenge and an opportunity. So far, for the most part, we are missing the opportunity. In the book Five times Faster by Simon Sharpe he writes about the theory of economics that has governed our thinking. It is one that assumes ‘balance’ is best. He instead asks that we look at economics as an ecosystem, one that is dynamic and allows for abundance to increase. That shift in thinking is critical, it allows us to make better decisions and increase the equality and justice in the transition to our new planet.
I think of us all now on a space ship or other huge vehicle (an ark?). All of us together, some of us kind, some of us cruel, squabbling, helping, whatever we are doing, are traveling together to a new planet. Of course, we have not taken a single step. The new planet has come to us. It sits outside my door. And daily, it reveals itself and how different it is from the planet I grew up on. More will be revealed in the coming years. And the differences can be alarming.
We create the future. We breathe into it and call it into being. What should its shape be? Who gets a voice? Who is honored? Who is cared for? How do we relate to other species like bees. The start can be simple acts of kindness. Or can be radical departures from the current system into what we imagine the next one will be. Grow a food forest. Share the food. The future is already here in the actions of so many people. There is really very little to be confused about. We just have to look around. And pray for the bees and all the other insects. We need them.
Thanks Anne – and as someone who knows a heck of a lot more than I do I appreciate and take note of the ‘economics as an ecosystem’. There is a new planet here.